Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Ruchira Gupta and activist and representative of the Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an award-winning organisation that works against sex trafficking in India addressing at the UN General Assembly session said that in some parts of India, child labour has been legalised.

Ruchira was among one of the few representatives from the NGO sector who were allowed to speak at the UN session on human trafficking. While addressing the session Ruchira expressed her concern informed that two laws related to human trafficking and child labour may prove to be very problematic for India in the near future. She informed that some of the recent changes made in the laws have legalised child labour in many sectors in India.

Furter giving details about the laws, Ruchira said that one law was passed in Sep 2016, which has legalised child labour in India, in different sectors like family-based enterprises and audio-visual entertainment. She further added that the new law imposed has also eliminated the list issued under the ILO-IPEC, which named the hazardous industries that the children should never be allowed to work in.

Informing about the second law, Ruchira said that the second law is trying to delink trafficking from sexual exploitation. She said that with the implementation of both these laws the victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation will almost become invisible, as legally they will not be under the category of child labour or trafficking.

She further argued that these laws may show data on the papers as a decrease in the human trafficking in India, but in reality, the number of victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation will increase. This will especially have a very dangerous impact on poorest of the poor girls.

“Trafficking is for both sexual and labour exploitation and we need to combat both as we implement the Global Plan of Action to combat trafficking,” she said.

Meanwhile, other top officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs agreed that despite all the efforts at all the levels the battle against the scourge of human trafficking is far from over. Additional Secretary Jaideep Govind said assured that India by all means and in every possible way will support and work with the international community in this battle against trafficking in persons. He also suggested that the effort needs to be doubled and the and a multi-pronged strategy should be adopted.

While addressing the UN Session, Govind also added that to curb the issue the focus should be on the reasons for the origin of it. He said that “the focus needs to be on development issues in the countries of origin and demand for trafficked persons for exploitative purposes in the destination countries.” He also added that India firmly objects human trafficking. The India’s anti-trafficking legislative framework is based on the Article 23 of the Constitution which prohibits trafficking and forced labour.

Govind also informed about the initiative of India, saying that ‘Ujjwala’ meaning ‘Bright Future’ has been introduced to fight against this problem. He said that under this scheme India takes the responsibilities of the victims of trafficking, by rescuing them, providing rehabilitation centres for them and also sending them back to their own country.

UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak agreeing to immediately act upon the issues of human trafficking and sexual exploitation said that if the people have to live freely and peacefully, they should first be free from the fear of trafficking.

Child labour, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, are a punishable offence and should continue to be punishable. Those who undergo the pain know exactly how it feels and no amount of sympathy can return them their days of childhood when they are supposed to study and not work in industries and sex labours.

India to make sure the women and children of India live freely, and to further strengthen  international cooperation, India has signed the SAARC Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children.